Site News  |   Monitor Keywords  |   Monitor Archive  |   Organizer  |   Account Info  |

Method and apparatus for discontinuous transmission/reception operation for reducing power consumption in celluar system

Method and apparatus for discontinuous transmission/reception operation for reducing power consumption in celluar system description/claims

The present invention relates to a cellular system for packet services; and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for discontinuously transmitting/receiving packets to reduce power consumption of a terminal in a cellular system for packet transmission.

Terminals in a Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) Third-Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) system are divided into those of an active state where data can be transmitted and those of an idle state. Only terminals of the idle state perform discontinuous reception (DRX) to reduce their power consumption.

To perform the DRX, a DRX cycle is determined and used for monitoring according to a paging occasion in a paging channel (PCH), and the DRX cycle is determined in a network and the same DRX cycle is applied to all terminals within the coverage of a predetermined base station.

In other words, in the conventional 3GPP system, terminals in an idle mode operate in sleep mode (i.e., low-power consuming operation) to reduce power consumption by using the DRX cycle, which is a system parameter.

Whereas the WCDMA 3GPP system aims to provide circuit and packet services in a circuit-based system, a 3GPP Long-Term Evolution (LTE), which is under standardization process to provide diverse packet services, is a packet-based system aiming to provide only a packet service.

Therefore, the conventional method of applying a DRX cycle only to idle-mode terminals and reducing the power consumption of the terminals is not appropriate to the LTE system which is devised to provide a packet service having a burst characteristic.

In short, it is required to develop a method that can reduce power consumption not only in idle-state terminals whose session for a packet service is terminated, but also in terminals whose session is not terminated yet but in an active state where data can be transmitted in a section where there is no data to be transmitted based on the burst characteristic of packet traffic to provide a packet service having a burst characteristic and diverse qualities of service (QoS).

Also, it is required to realize a method and apparatus that can reduce power consumption of a terminal by optionally determining parameters for discontinuous reception/transmission operation based on the QoS of a packet service provided by a cellular system such as a WCDMA 3GPP system to thereby minimize a processing time when a terminal switches between a transmission mode (Tx on) where the terminal transmits packet data and a transmission suspension mode (Tx off) where it does not transmit packet data; and efficiently operating the transmission suspension mode section where the terminal does not transmit packet data.

It is, therefore, an object of the present invention devised to resolve the above problems to provide a method and apparatus that can perform a low-power consuming operation when a terminal is in active state in a cellular system.

Also, it is another object of the present invention to provide a discontinuous reception/transmission (DRX/DTX) method and apparatus that can improve a power saving function of a terminal and minimize processing time needed for switching into a low-power consuming operation mode to thereby reduce power consumption of the terminal in a cellular system for transmitting packets by determining DRX/DTX parameters according to the quality of service (QoS) of a packet service provided by the cellular system for transmitting packets.

Other objects and advantages of the present invention can be understood by the following description, and become apparent with reference to the embodiments of the present invention. Also, it is obvious to those skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains that the objects and advantages of the present invention can be realized by the means as claimed and combinations thereof.

In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for discontinuously transmitting/receiving packet data to reduce power consumption of a terminal in a cellular system, comprising the steps of: a) establishing discontinuous reception/transmission (DRX/DTX) parameters including discontinuous DRX/DTX cycle information for terminals operating in a transmission suspension mode, which is a sub-state of an active state; and b) performing DRX/DTX based on the DRX/DTX parameters in the terminals operating in the transmission suspension mode.

Also, the discontinuous reception/transmission method for reducing power consumption of a terminal in a cellular system transmitting packets, which is suggested in the present invention, includes the steps of establishing DRX/DTX parameters including DRX/DTX cycle information; and performing a low power-consuming operation based on the DRX/DTX parameters.

Also, a base station apparatus for discontinuously transmitting/receiving packet data to reduce power consumption of a terminal in a cellular system for transmitting packets, includes a terminal state management unit and a DRX/DTX control unit. The terminal state management unit manages and switches the state of the terminal according to whether the terminal is in an idle state or an active state. The DRX/DTX control unit establishes DRX/DTX parameters including DRX/DTX cycle information for terminals operating in a transmission suspension mode, which is a sub-state of the active state, and controls the DRX/DTX operation based on the DRX/DTX parameters.

Also, the DRX/DTX terminal of the present invention that has a reduced power consumption in a cellular system for transmitting packets includes a terminal state management unit and a low power-consuming operation unit. The terminal state management unit controls mode switching between a transmission suspension mode and a transmission mode, which are sub-states of the active state. The low power-consuming operation unit establishes DRX/DTX parameters including DRX/DTX cycle information and controls a terminal to perform a low power-consuming operation based on the DRX/DTX parameters while it is in the transmission suspension mode.

The present invention increases the capacity of an active-state terminal that can be accommodated by a base station by variably applying parameters for discontinuous reception/transmission (DRX/DTX) according to the type and QoS of a packet service provided by a cellular system for transmitting packets and efficiently utilizing limited radio resources for transmitting control information. The present invention also improves a power-saving function of a terminal and minimizes processing time needed for mode switching of the DRX/DTX by consuming only power needed for a reception module of the terminal according to a DRX/DTX cycle when there are no data to be transmitted.

In addition, the present invention can perform DRX/DTX operation not only in an idle state but in an active state to reduce power consumption of the terminal in a cellular system for transmitting packets.

• Provisional Patent
• Utility Patent

• What Is a Patent?
• What Is a Trademark or Servicemark?
• What Is a Copyright?
• Patent Laws